Can I set preferences for my reserved seat?

Yes, but we can’t guarantee them.

Where possible, Railboard will always try and reserve a seat for you. And if you’ve chosen seat preferences, we’ll try to ensure your reserved seat matches them.

How to set seat preferences

On the Payment screen, there is a section for ‘Seat preferences’. If you tap the ‘Add seat preferences’ button, the menu for choosing them pops up.

Screenshot of how to open the Seat preferences menu and the choices available.
How to open the ‘Seat preferences’ menu and the choices available.

To save your choices, tap either the Done button in the top right or the Done button at the bottom. You’ll briefly see a loading screen while your choices are applied, and then a list in the ‘Seat preferences’ section showing all the options you’ve chosen.

Screenshots showing the process of saving your seat preferences.
The process of saving your seat preferences.

The choices available

You can set the following seat preference choices:

  • Seat direction: Forward or backwards facing.
  • Seat type: At a table or not.
  • Seat position: A window seat or by the aisle.
  • Coach type: In the quiet coach.
  • Power socket: For if you want to charge your laptop or phone.

Things to watch out for

There are a few things to keep in mind about seat preferences and reservations.

They are not guaranteed

Whether or not we can find seats matching your preferences depends on what reservable seats are still available when you come to book. And also on whether the train has things like power sockets, a quiet coach, etc.

To have the best chance of matching all your seat preferences, we recommend booking your tickets as early as possible. This has the added advantage of often being cheaper, too, thanks to advance tickets.

The reserved seats may not be all together for groups

When buying tickets for multiple people, we always do our best to seat everyone together or as close together as possible. But it depends on what reservable seats are still available when the booking is made.

With Split Tickets, you may need to change seats

One of the downsides of Split Tickets is that you may occasionally need to change seats during your journey.

We’ll do our best to get the same seat reservation for the entire journey, but it’s not always possible. On the plus side, thanks to the Split Tickets, you’ll be saving a bunch of money, which will hopefully outweigh the occasional inconvenience.

Updated on 12 February 2023
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